That swallow-the-canary look has returned to Pat Bowlen. John Fox can roar with laughter if it so tickles him.

Blissful sentiment, though, typically envelopes all introductions of a new head coach. The Broncos may be ecstatic about hiring Fox as their head coach, but the news conference is finished.

Those feelings of goodwill eventually will dissipate into the reality that Fox has taken charge of this: a 4-12 team. Make that a 4-12 team that lost 59-14 at home to the Oakland Raiders.

"Let's be serious," Fox said. "The game is only fun when you win."

Tim Tebow doesn't have to be leading the huddle for Bronco Nation to collectively say: Amen.

Seriously, the Broncos haven't had fun around here in five years. They haven't won enough to reach the playoffs since the 2005 season. They have just one postseason victory since Elway, who is now the Broncos' football front-office boss, retired as a player 12 years ago.

Fun? The Broncos were downright miserable this past season when it became apparent Josh McDaniels had fallen short as an NFL head coach.

Bowlen is finishing up his 27th year as Broncos owner as he gets ready to celebrate his 67th year of life. Walking away from Fox's news conference Friday, Bowlen was reminded of how his most recent head coaching hire was in so many ways opposite of his previous one.

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"I would say that's a good observation," Bowlen said. "I went young with Josh. I don't want to say anything bad about the guy. He did his best. But this time I think it's fair to say that I did want someone with a little more experience. I still wanted someone who had enthusiasm and a dynamic personality. I think we needed that around here. I think with this guy, we got both."

Besides his nine years as head coach of the Carolina Panthers and his outgoing demeanor, Fox knows how to captivate a new audience with some of the darnedest lessons-in-a-sentence.

The Denver Post's NFL reporters post analysis, notes and minutiae on this blog devoted to the Denver Broncos.

Like, this game is only fun when you win.

"Your mind is the most important muscle in your body," he said.

Whoa, now, Coach. Slow down there.

"I think the essence of football is the toughness and physicality it takes to block and tackle," he said.

That's more like it.

"My leadership style is not one of dictatorship," Fox said. "I like people to feel more like they are working with me than for me."

Let this be a lesson to those who are getting older and becoming set in their ways. Bowlen just hired a head coach who will talk it over with general manager Brian Xanders and answer to Elway before a final decision is made.

And for the first time in 17 years, Bowlen's head coach will not think from an offensive mind's perspective, but from a defensive view.

"My experience is, you take the best guy for the head coach and if he's a defensive guy, fine, but the offensive guy is going to be right there behind him," Bowlen said.

After nine consecutive seasons as the Panthers' head coach, Fox said he was asked by the Broncos' coaching search committee Wednesday why he wanted to take on an NFL head coaching job again without a break.

He talked about his passion for the job, his competitiveness. The best answer, though, was at the bottom of his resume. Fox got his first coaching job with San Diego State in 1978. By his seventh year he was with his seventh college program. A coaching lifer had just begun.

The Los Angeles Express of the USFL made it eight teams in eight years. The University of Pittsburgh made it nine out of nine.

Anyone willing to move nine times in nine years, 16 times in all, to advance a career does not take a year off to click the channels.

"I kind of knew what I was going to do when I was 11," Fox said. "I was not one of those guys who changed majors or made a life change."

A change of cities, maybe. But football is to Fox what faith and football are to Tebow. They simply can't live without them.

Besides his motivational slogans, Fox can tell a story. He told the one about how he and Tebow broke bread at a restaurant in the quarterback's college hometown of Gainesville, Fla., during a predraft evaluation meeting last spring.

"In 30-plus years of coaching I have taken many a free agent, projected free agent, college recruit," Fox said.

He was just getting started.

"Part of the process is eating meals, and typically they are very expensive restaurants, very nice restaurants, because that is what you are trying to sell."

Yes, yes. Go on.

"But in all my experiences he is the only guy that, unannounced, very quietly — of course, he had a little juice there in Gainesville, Fla. — gave the waiter his credit card and was going to pay for the meal. I had to actually make the guy recharge it to pay."

The legend of Tebow continues to grow.

"That impressed me," Fox said.

The team? Fox wouldn't commit to whether he will change from the Broncos' current 3-4 defensive system to the 4-3 scheme he knows best. He did indicate many defensive players would change.

He also indicated the offense is way out of balance — too heavy with the pass, too light on the run. Another way to put it is the Broncos' offense has employed too much finesse and not enough brawn.

"I don't see it unfixable at all," Fox said of the Broncos in general.

There is much work to do, though, before the Broncos can start having fun again.

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended ThursdayWhat the heck is that thing? It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

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